Virologist: Even with protective measures, COVID-19 spreads indoors

At the moment, there are more than 500 COVID-19 cases at the University of Alabama, nearly 160 cases at the University of Missouri, and dozens of cases at USC. Many of the colleges that brought students back to campus and held classes indoors are now expressing alarm about the coronavirus cases emerging as classes have barely started. Was this foreseeable?

“This is definitely one of those situations in which I hate being right about something,” said Columbia University virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen on KIRO Radio’s Gee and Ursula Show. “… We had such high community transmission levels throughout the country over the course of the summer. But it makes sense that even when you’re taking precautions, even when you’re testing, even when you’re wearing masks, even when you’re doing physical distancing and taking all these protection measures, nothing is going to stop spread for people who are in enclosed environments over long periods of time, or even longer than 15 minutes, which is what the CDC says.”

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“Those are situations that describe colleges,” she added. “So people are coming from communities where there’s lots of transmission into this environment. It makes sense to me that people are going to transmit the virus and infect other people. I think that this could have usually been avoided by at least having online classes, at least until testing capacity was in place to ensure that people were not returning to campus with presymptomatic infections, where they could potentially transmit the virus to others.”

The other costs of lockdowns

New York City schools are getting ready to reopen with room by room ventilation, outdoor classrooms, and various other protective measures in place.

One of the arguments for schools reopening is that young people rarely get COVID-19. There are also more people having mental health issues, and some argue we’re ignoring those people by keeping schools shut. How would Dr. Rasmussen respond to those concerns?

“That’s true that children are not as susceptible to severe disease. However, children are infected with this virus, they can transmit it to others, including faculty and staff, including people in their households. And so it still presents a large danger for the community, for people who might be more vulnerable than children. In terms of the mental health crisis, this is something that is really not related with schools as much. I think that the prolonged effects of living through this pandemic are contributing to that significantly as well,” she said.

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“And the real solution for that is not to open schools, it’s to provide more resources for people who need that, provide people with financial support if they can’t go to work, provide people with paid sick leave, provide people with mental health care services,” Rasmussen added. “That is what needs to happen, and not just saying that these other epidemics that are sort of following along with this pandemic are going to be fixed just by opening schools and businesses and pretending that everything is back to normal.”

Listen to the Gee and Ursula Show weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.